Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) — who had pushed hard for letting tax cuts lapse for millionaires at year’s end – has agreed to back President Barack Obama’s plan to impose hikes on families earning more than $250,000, quashing what might have been an election-year Democratic food fight.

Obama’s team quietly pressed top Hill Democrats last month to back the plan in a series of White House meetings people close to the situation tell POLITICO.

Obama announced Monday, the first weekday following Friday’s anemic jobs report, that he planned to present House and Senate Republicans with a plan to eliminate Bush-era tax cuts for upper income Americans, which he claims would spare all but the top two percent of all earners.

“[Schumer] still believes that the millionaire strategy is the best one. But he believes more that party unity at this time is even more important,” a person close to Schumer told POLITICO, who emphasized that any daylight between the White House and Hill Democrats was tactical, not philosophical.

“He’s going to be a team player for the president.”

Schumer, the top messaging strategist for the Democratic majority, agreed not to push a floor amendment calling for the million-dollar threshold, and would urge the rest of the caucus to back Obama on the $250,000 cutoff, the person added.

Schumer — who joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as part of the White House deliberations — had argued internally that a “Millionaire’s Tax” would be much easier to sell to voters, and deny the GOP the chance to label the action as a broad-based tax hike.

Pelosi announced her support in a press release Monday afternoon.

“Today, President Obama once again stood firmly with America’s middle class and small businesses,” she said. “Democrats and the President have always fought for an extension of the tax cuts for middle-income families to offer greater relief and economic certainty to all working Americans. Once again, Republicans must decide: will they continue to hold middle class tax cuts hostage to tax breaks for the wealthiest or will they agree to pass the middle class tax cuts we all agree should become law?

Schumer, Reid, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Patty Murray (D-Wash.) signaled they were on board with the plan in a meeting with Obama senior adviser David Plouffe, counselor Pete Rouse and Chief of Staff Jack Lew in mid-June, according to a senior Democrat with knowledge of the meeting.

Pelosi and her leadership met with Plouffe separately and indicated they wouldn’t fight Obama either.

The White House staff, led by National Economic Council Chairman Gene Sperling, made the case that Obama’s $250,000 plan was simply better policy, and would help reduce the deficit.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the White House consulted with Pelosi and Schumer before today’s announcement. “We consult with Democratic leaders in the Senate and House all the time.”

Carney also said a White House push could actually help to get the tax cuts through Congress despite suggestions otherwise.“What we’ve seen in the last year or so, the last 10 or 12 months, when the president makes a public case for policy that is sensible, that’s broadly supported by the American people and he continues to make that case when we see the kind of movement that initially seems unlikely in Congress and hopefully that’ll be the case here.”

Republicans weren’t buying the show of unity — or the notion that Obama wasn’t pushing a broad tax increase.

“Americans are struggling in a ‘zombie economy’ and President Obama’s only answer is to pass one of the largest tax hikes in history,” said Amanda Hennenberg, a Romney campaign spokesperson. “President Obama’s tax increases on families and job creators will create more economic uncertainty and fewer opportunities for struggling middle-class families. From Day One, Mitt Romney will take action to lower marginal rates, help middle-class Americans save and invest, and jumpstart economic growth and job creation.”